Family Camp--Coolendel on the Shoalhaven river

This weekend saw us with about 140 other people from 1st Caringbah Scout Group on the Shoalhaven river at Coolendel--2/3 hours' drive from Sydney-terminating in dirt roads! A great campsite--well equipped with shower blocks and hot water (not that we needed heated water with temps over 30 Deg C!). The river gave us great opportunites to 'lilo' down the rapids, jump off rocks and the venture Scouts, lead by a visitor Venturer leader from the UK--Luke Fisher--set up an awsome flying fox across the river (well, ending IN the river!). We also enjoyed walks with a great Cub leader who is also a great naturalist, saw huge lizards and wombats (very shy though), wallabies and even peacocks (!?). There was also a lively camp fire, some investitures and other ceremonies typical of scouting world-wide. The camp owners were sufficiently impressed with our overall behaviour to say we were welcome back anytime. All safety precautions were taken and we had no incidents of our own, but a couple of parents did rescue a child from another family there, who was in difficulties in the rapids.

This annual camp is traditionally run by the Cub Pack team--this year lead by Kaa and her team. As Group Leader I did not have anything more to do than officiate a couple of times.